I am writing to you alone because you have probably already seen Papasha off as far as Shaitansk [2].

I keep thinking that you are either in Kazan or in Nizhny Novgorod. For I don't think that you would be capable of not fulfilling a request such as mine: I am sure you have gone with Papasha as a surprise. I shall not write to you much because I am sure I am doing all this in vain. However, if Papasha did leave you behind in Alapayeva, you must be sad, and so it is necessary to cheer up my butterfly who loves her Petrushka or Popka [3], who in turn adores you and eagerly awaits that moment when he can kiss your wonderful hand. I shall kiss Papasha's for sure, but God knows when I shall kiss yours.

Notes and References

↑Ilya Tchaikovsky had promised to visit his sons Pyotr and Nikolay, who were studying at boarding-schools in Saint Petersburg. After making the long journey from Alapayevsk in the Urals to Saint Petersburg, he spent about three weeks with them in September before returning home. Shaitansk is a small settlement on the banks of the Neiva River in the Central Urals.

↑'Sestritsa', or 'little sister', was the affectionate name for Tchaikovsky's much older cousin, Anastasiya Vasilyevna Popova (1807–1894), the daughter of Ilya Tchaikovsky's older sister Yevdokiya Popova.

↑Anastasiya Petrovna Petrova (1824–1893) had joined the Tchaikovsky family in Alapayevsk on 24 November/6 December 1849 as a governess, specifically with the task of preparing Pyotr for the School of Jurisprudence in Saint Petersburg. After spending some three years with the Tchaikovskys she worked as a governess in various other families, but returned to her first employer in 1859, when she took charge of the twins, Anatoly and Modest.